“They haven’t demonstrated to us that they can close 100 or even 50 schools. They don’t have the expertise to accomplish that in such a short time-frame. When they closed down as many as 12 schools, it was a disaster,” said a source close to the commission.

“Our initial talk was that a recommendation go out that CPS close no more than 20 schools in an given year. It’s still fluid. But, something to that effect is the way it’s going to be. Twenty-at-a-time would be less chaotic and give parents more time to prepare instead of scrambling to find alternatives this late in the year.”

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett have made clear their desire to get the political pain over with in one fell-swoop — kind of like removing a Band-Aid.